The Slow-Motion World of Snowpony

Snowpony's pedigree will make indie-lovers keen to hear their debut album. Katharine Gifford, former keyboardist with Stereolab and singer in Moonshake, is Snowpony's songwriter and lead vocalist. Drummer Kevin Bass also hails from Moonshake, while the band's bassist, Debbie Googe, used to be My Bloody Valentine.

With its note of Arctic sparseness, Snowpony is a weird name, very appropriate for their weird kind of experimentalism. 'Easy Way Down', the album's opening track, sets the tone with striking double-tracked basslines and feedback that makes your heart race. Throughout the album, Gifford's laid back, effortless, almost detached vocals contrast wonderfully with the instrumental complexity that is a strong feature of most of these eleven songs. The vibe is Stereolab, but the mixture of creepy apocalyptic sampling, jazzy discordant brass, psychedelic, melodic synthesisers and distorted techno bring Snowpony a step beyond. They're a sort of futuristic love-child of Sonic Youth, Moloko and the 13th Floor Elevators, with a special penchant for backwards loops that make most of what they do off-kilter and eerie.

'3 Can Keep A Secret (If 2 Are Dead)' and 'St Lucy's Gate', two very distinct back-to-back tracks, exemplify the strange new sound that Snowpony have concocted. The first spins you in a whirl of raw emotional intensity, reminiscent of Kristen Hersh, while the second bathes you in serenity, until the sweetness gets sombre as the beat takes a ghostly turn.

Snowpony's debut album is not an easy ride. It took about five or six listens before I got into it. A couple of tracks failed to grab me, but most of The Slow-Motion World is windswept, interesting, and very, very cool.